Longer, warmer days on the horizon call for more time exploring all that Toronto has to offer, and the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood is the perfect place to start. Already abuzz with back-to-normal jitters as restaurants, patios, gelaterias and art galleries get back into the sunny swing of things, the winter blues are almost a bygone time again, making way for our blooming social lives.
Take advantage of the longer days by enjoying a culture-filled evening, exploring the art galleries around Bloor-Yorkville—the city’s command post for culture, dining, wellness and shopping. We wouldn’t blame you for stopping by Gemma Gelateria for artisanal gelato or a cappuccino at Coco Espresso Bar. Curate your perfect European-inspired day while popping in and out of Bloor-Yorkville’s most revered galleries and upcoming exhibits.
With its home base in Montreal and flagship in Toronto, Galerie LeRoyer is a contemporary gallery home to exhibits featuring emerging artists from across the globe. Coming soon to the Toronto gallery space is Willy Verginer’s exhibition “Rayuela,” a collection of hyperrealistic chiselled wood sculptures that are both poignant and absurdist, and comment on contemporary pollution and environmental degradation.
As Gallerie de Bellefeuille enters its 42nd year in operation, it’s become one of Canada’s most-recognized independently run art galleries. With many firsts under its belt (like holding the first Canadian solo exhibition of American pop artist Jim Dine), the gallery is currently home to major paintings, prints, photography and sculptures by artists like Peter Anton, John Barkley, Darlene Cole, Barbara Cole and more. Stop by to see Chihuly’s glasswork that has taken the art world by storm.
Owned and operated by Canadian art dealer Phillip Gevik, this gallery is devoted to exhibiting woodland and Inuit artwork as well as contemporary, historical and post-war works by established artists who represent Canadian art at its best. Its current exhibition, Carl Beam: The New World, is retrospective and features works by none other than Ojibwe artist Carl Beam and is the first to do so in a commercial Toronto gallery in many years.
Canada’s leading fine art auction house, Heffel’s live and online auctions feature hundreds of outstanding works of art from around the world. Everything from Canadian and Asian works to post-war, impressionist, or modern art, can be admired and purchased here. Heffel also hosts an internationally inclusive live auction in May and November and online auctions monthly.
Walk into Ingram Gallery and be transported through the ever-changing development of the Canadian art world—featured works flow with the evolution of Canadian art. Located in a historic brownstone building, this two-storey gallery features everything from contemporary art to historically significant work, with collections from every notable period.
Izzy Gallery is home to contemporary photographers and modern masters from around the world. Their exhibitions are known for their flair and innovative dynamism, with each piece hand-selected from the artist’s archives and offered in mind-blowing large formats.
This charming gallery features contemporary fine art like original paintings, sculptures, photography and limited-edition prints. Liss Gallery is known for bringing in exclusive photography featuring rock and roll legends, including Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Their gallery has also featured the work of Bernie Taupin, lyricist for Elton John. What’s coming up? They’re celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday with a nostalgic exhibition called “The Art of Dr. Seuss.”
Lumas’ Yorkville location is their second brick-and-mortar gallery in North America, bringing their renowned photo art to Yorkville. This open-concept space features a stunning collection of selected works, including hand-signed original photographs featuring everything from city scenes, animals, landscapes, and iconic figures.
Founded in 1962, the Mira Godard Gallery is one of Canada’s premier commercial art galleries featuring paintings, sculptures and works on paper from both Canadian and international artists. Catch their current exhibition “The View from Here,” featuring new paintings by Halifax-native artist Stephen Hutchings, until March 26.
This bright and cheerful gallery was established in 1978 and has locations in New York, Palm Beach and Paris, in addition to Toronto. Taglialatella Galleries features artwork by disruptive, original artists including Andy Warhol, Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mr. Brainwash and more. Their galleries emphasize community engagement through artist exhibitions, opening parties, special events, and public art initiatives.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
